New Delhi: A 47-year-old male teacher in France was beheaded in Paris, France after he opened a discussion on caricatures of Prophet Muhammad with his students. The horrifying incident took place in the town of Eragny, in the Val d'Oise region northwest of Paris and is the second terrorism-related incident that has happened in the wake of the ongoing trial on the massacre in Jan 2015 at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo office.

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Charlie Hebdo cartoons

Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical weekly magazine that features reports, cartoons, and jokes. The magazine is known for being non- conformist, atheist, and is heavily influenced by radical left politics. In its 9 February 2006 edition, the magazine published a cartoon on its front-page which showed a weeping Prophet Muhammad saying ‘C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons’ (it's hard being loved by jerks"). The magazine had also reprinted cartoons by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which had published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005 depicting the Prophet. Other cartoons in the magazine included Prophet Muhammad with a turban shaped as a bomb.

The cartoons generated criticism and even the then French President Jacques Chirac considered it as ‘overt provocations’. The Paris Grand Mosque and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF) sued the magazine for “public injury” to the dignity of people. But in March 2007, the editor Philippe Val was acquitted by a Paris court.

The magazine also published similar cartoons again in 2012.

The magazine had defended the decision by saying that cartoons stand against religious fundamentalism and denied the accusation of racism.

2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo

The Magazine had come under attack even before 2015. In 2011, the website was hacked and the office was firebombed after it had published another cartoon on the Prophet but no one was injured.

In 2015, Islamist gunmen identified as brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi entered the office and killed 12 people in the Paris office. Those dead which included the editor of the magazine were some of France's most celebrated cartoonists.  Two days later another attack happened in the east of Paris where Amedy Coulibaly, who was an acquaintance of the brothers, killed a policewoman and took several people hostage in a Jewish supermarket. All three gunmen were shot dead by the police.

Trial 

While the gunmen were killed, thirteen men and a woman were been implicated in the case. They have been accused of buying weapons, cars, and helping with logistics. The trial was supposed to take place earlier this year but was pushed to September after France went into lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic. On September 25, a young man stabbed two journalists near the Charlie Hebdo office.

Charlie Hebdo reprints cartooons

The French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo republished the controversial cartoons as the trials started. The editorial team of the weekly mentioned that it was the right time to republish the cartoons and "essential" as the trial opens. The publication mentioned that it has been often asked to print other caricatures of Mohammed but it refrained from doing so, not because it is prohibited -- the law allows it-- but thought of a good reason to do it, a reason which has meaning and which brings something to the debate.

After the move, the French President Emmanuel Macron said, "It’s never the place of a president of the Republic to pass judgment on the editorial choice of a journalist or newsroom". But he added that it was important for French citizens to be respectful to each other, and avoid a "dialogue of hate.